October 8, 2009

I think I'm done with Mafia Wars; Now I'm Running a Café.

By:
The Dude on the Right
Like many a people on Facebook I sometimes get wrapped into various application games. There was a time I was collecting eggs, and sure, they were pretty when they hatched, but then came the feeding them, trying to collect more, and "special" eggs. I was done with eggs. Then I started farming with "Farm Town," growing a nice farm which again, just seemed to take too much time to do too many things, and I bailed on that just about the time "FarmVille" came into being, which looked remarkably like "Farm Town." So now my farm is just a testament to my BFF, and it only requires watering every now and then.

The game, however, that I've stuck the most with has been "Mafia Wars," which, in terms of many things, is quite a boring game because it doesn't have animated people, or plants you have to tend to. Nope, it's mostly just a narrative game, with, I suppose, some semblance of strategy in order to develop a strong mafia. My problem is that from the beginning I only cared about a few things: One was that I kept trying to get a level ahead of our staff member, Big Cooter, and I was finally able to overtake him because he went on vacation and then seemed to lose interest. After that I was just trying to finish the various jobs, hoping to get to the highest boss masteries, and then, wouldn't you know it, the bastards at Zynga opened up new areas, developing a Cuba area, and now Moscow (I was about two days from finishing when they opened Moscow). So now I keep wondering why I am still playing because all I find myself doing, since I don't really care about fighting anyone, is "doing a job" until I run out of energy and then wait for the energy to regenerate or for one of my few mafia members to give me an "Energy Boost." When I get "Skill Points" to spend, every one of them goes to my "Energy" level. Now with a Profile of: Energy - 1999, Attack - 33, Defense - 46, and Stamina – 17, I have a measly mafia size of 35, of which 16 are hired guns and not even "real" friends, so I think I might just be the lamest, Level 320+, mafia member with nearly $100,000,000,000 in the bank in the New York area. Every morning I find myself saying "Self, what the hell are you doing wasting 5 minutes just clicking your mouse button, doing that 'job' and not seeming to accomplish anything?" So, yea, I think I'm just about done with Mafia Wars, and just in time.

Because now I'm a chef.

Yup, damn you Zynga and your Facebook games because now I'm playing Café World, where sadly this game is more my style. Why? Because I can actually incorporate my day into it and it doesn't have insanely long times to "Plant" a farm like "Farm Town" did. Yup, I have my little café, I get to cook things, and they have specific lengths of time they take to get done. I have found I'm planning things like "I know I won't be checking Facebook for about 4 hours, so if I start cooking some French Onion Soup I can finish it up and get it served when I come back," and I even have a chicken that is roasting and will be conveniently ready in 14 hours so I don't have to worry about more things on that stove. I don't have a lot of neighbors, yet, so I can't grow my café that much, but my "Buzz Rating" is up to 43, and I don't know if that's good or not, but I seem to get a lot of people giving me a thumbs up!

So I think I'm hanging up my guns for an apron, and I'm sure there will be a time that the apron will need washing, but for now I've got to get back because my fruit salad is just about ready and I've got patrons to please, although I think I have just enough time to make a little more money in Moscow so I'm a little closer to be able to "Rob The RossijaBanc Central Repository."